The West Science Olympiad varsity Gold, Green and Blue teams traveled to Cedar Rapids for the Mount Vernon Invitational on Feb. 23. Of the 15 high school teams, the Gold team brought home first place, the Blue team took fourth place —  missing third place by only six points — and the Green placed eighth.

From tests to builds, teams of members participated in various events. In total, West medaled in 28 events, a drastic improvement in comparison to the 14 medals from last year’s performance.

Anjali Lodh ’25, a fourth-year member of Science Olympiad and Gold team member, placed first in the Codebusters event.

“I felt a bit nervous going into my events, but once we were done, I was very proud of the work my teammates and I had put into it,” Lodh said. “Getting a medal was definitely a nice reward for our hard work.”

One of the four West Science Olympiad captains, Sabrina Du ’25, was also pleased with the performance on Saturday.

“I’m super proud of everyone on the team because I know everyone worked really hard in their events. I know the state competition is going to be very special this year with this team, and I can’t wait to see everyone’s effort pay off in Ames later,” Du said.

Another member of the Gold team, Erin Chen ’27, looks forward to continuing her event preparation.

“In the future, I want to continue working on the events that I competed in [at Mount Vernon] and maybe look into the possibility of pushing myself to try something new,” Chen said. “With the state competition coming up, I want to keep improving my scores and have fun with my friends while learning.”

Gallery • 3 Photos

Anna Song

Sophomores Shannon Chen, Gracie Liu and Erin Chen study before their events at the Science Olympiad Invitational held at Mount Vernon Middle School.

On April 5, the three teams will travel to the annual state competition held at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. While the teams continue studying and preparing for this competition, they will do so with a goal in mind.

“Our goal for the state competition in April is to become the first-ever Science Olympiad state champions from West High to qualify for the national competition,” Du said.

The state competition in Ames will be the last high school Science Olympiad competition for seniors this year. Du has confidence in the West’s Science Olympiad program and its members. 

“We’ve made a lot of progress this year in terms of maximizing the potential of the teams and providing more opportunities for the students to compete,” Du said. “Despite this being my last year as a team captain, I hope in the future, we can build on our successes and continue to be dominant at the state and national level. The sky’s the limit with the talent our team has, and I know our future is in good hands.”

Results:

1st Place (9)

Erin Chen ’27 & Jaynou Ma ’28 – Astronomy
Joseph Lin ’25 & Ajay Bharanidhar ’25 – Air Trajectory
Jensen Lin ’27 & Ajay Bharanidhar ’25 – Bungee Drop
Anna Song ’25, Sabrina Du ’25 & Anjali Lodh ’25 – Codebusters
Erin Chen ’27 & Jaynou Ma ’28 – Dynamic Planet
Konnon Chen ’28 & Ashvid Sudheer ’28 – Ecology
Ethan Lee ’26 & Alex Forbes ’26 – Entomology
Jaynou Ma ’28 & Derek Hua ’25 – Microbe Mission
Ephram Liu ’25 & Joseph Lin ’25 – Robot Tour

2nd Place (13)

Nurefsan Demir ’28 & Gracie Liu ’27 – Astronomy
Mrudani Ramkumar ’25 & Sabrina Du ’25 – Chem Lab
Mrudani Ramkumar ’25 & Derek Hua ’25 – Disease Detectives
Taha Salem ’28 & Adam Lee ’28 – Dynamic Planet
Joseph Lin ’25 & Ajay Bharanidhar ’25 – Electric Vehicle
Ethan Lee ’26 & Asif Ali ’26 – Fossils
Rebecca Westfall ’26 & Nathan Chen ’28 – Geologic Mapping
Ephram Liu ’25 & Ajay Bharanidhar ’25 – Helicopter
Joseph Lin ’25 & Jensen Lin ’27 – Materials Science
Henry Timmer-Hackert ’26 & Jaynou Ma ’28 – Optics
Jensen Lin ’25 & Ephram Liu ’25 – Tower
Joseph Lin ’25 – Wind Power
Adam Lee ’28 & Taha Salem ’28 – Write It Do It

3rd Place (6)

Adam Salem ’26 & Alex Forbes ’26 – Chem Lab
Asif Ali ’26 & Jack Eastvold ’26 – Ecology
Rebecca Westfall ’26 & Henry Timmer-Hackert ’26 – Entomology
Jacob Weimer ’26 & Carver Grifhorst ’26 – Helicopter
Ethan Ding ’28 & Helena Yang ’28 – Optics
Asif Ali ’26 & Thomas Tong ’26 – Tower

Gallery • 4 Photos

Megan Bildner

Gold team members Jaynou Ma '28 and Henry Timmer-Hackert '26 placed 2nd for Optics at the Mount Vernon Invitational.